Microsoft, Cray pen deal for cloud service

SEATTLE — Cray, which has manufacturing facilities in Chippewa Falls, announced a partnership Monday that makes its supercomputers part of Microsoft’s cloud-based services.

Microsoft Azure customers will be able to utilize dedicated Cray supercomputers located at cloud computing centers to quickly crunch data for purposes including research and product development.

“Our partnership with Microsoft will introduce Cray supercomputers to a whole new class of customers that need the most advanced computing resources to expand their problem-solving capabilities, but want this new capability available to them in the cloud,” Cray president and CEO Peter Ungaro said in a news release.

Cray touted the partnership as a way researchers, analysts and scientists can use artificial intelligence in fields such as medical imaging and autonomous vehicles.

“By working with Cray to provide dedicated supercomputers in Azure, we are offering customers uncompromising performance and scalability that enables a host of new previously unimaginable scenarios in the public cloud,” Jason Zander, corporate vice president of Microsoft Azure, said in the news release.